'This Week' Transcript: Rahm Emanuel

June 20, 2010

Page 3 of 16

TAPPER: Now Barton later apologized for his comments after some
pressure from House Republican leaders. But the Svengali of the
president's political arm, David Plouffe, has called for him to step
down as ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Do you agree?

EMANUEL: That's for the Republicans to decide. What I think is
more important, you can say it's a political gift for us, and it is.
But it's dangerous for the American people, because while the ranking
Republican would have oversight into the energy industry, and if the
Republicans were the majority, would have actually the gavel and the
chairmanship.

That's not a political gaffe, those were prepared remarks. That is
a philosophy. That is an approach to what they see. They see the
aggrieved party here is BP, not the fishermen. And remember, this is
not just one person. Rand Paul, running for Senate in Kentucky, what
did he say? He said the way BP was being treated was un-American.

Other members of the Republican leadership have come to the defense
of BP and attacked the administration for forcing them to set up an
escrow account and fund it to the level of $20 billion. These aren't
political gaffes. You know, I've been in hearings. Joe Barton was
speaking from prepared remarks. Rand Paul, who is running Kentucky, a
leading Senate candidate for the Republicans said BP, the way they were
being treated was un-American.

That is an approach to -- they think the government is the problem.
And in this balance, and the difference here is that BP made a mess.
And the government, and also in the president's view, in certain areas
like MMS, hasn't done its job.

TAPPER: Minerals Management.

EMANUEL: Minerals Management. But the approach here expressed and
supported by other voices in the Republican Party, sees the aggrieved
party as BP, not the American -- not the fishermen and the communities
down there affected. And that would the governing philosophy. And I
think what Joe Barton did is remind the American people, in case they've
forgotten, this is how the Republicans would govern.

TAPPER: What do you say to -- when you hear criticisms that this
administration has used too many strong-arm tactics when it comes to
dealing with big business, whether it's in health insurance companies or
Wall Street firms or the U.S. auto industry?

EMANUEL: Well, first of all, it has had a different approach based
on the situation. And having seen a number of -- let me try to kind of
walk through. In the case of General Motors, the prior administration
wrote a check without asking for any conditions of change.

We said, without a check from the American people, get yourself
right. You've got to make fundamental change. They've made changes and
now, as you know, General Motors is going to have an IPO. And most
importantly, they're going to keep open factories that they were
planning on closing.

So we're righting an industry that was not doing itself, or the
American people or its workers, the right thing. So it was a way of
getting them to do the changes that they had postponed.

In the case of also the auto industry, for 30 years this country has
debating whether we're going to raise the fuel efficiency standards. We
finally broke that logjam, not just for cars, but for trucks, by
bringing industry together and also all of the other players and we have
now a consensus.